Experimental Particle Physics

Particle Interactions and Detectors

Lecture 3

3rd May 2013 Fergus Wilson, RAL 1

Interactions and Detectors
 Last lecture
 Ionisation Losses and charged particle detectors
 This lecture
 Photon absorption
 Electromagnetic Showers
 Hadronic Showers
 Multiple Scattering

3rd May 2013 Fergus Wilson, RAL 2

Radiation Loss for electrons
 Bremsstrahlung: electromagnetic radiation
produced by the deceleration of a charged
particle, such as an electron, when
e- deflected by another charged particle, such
as an atomic nucleus.
e-  Photon can be very energetic.
photon

atom

dE E E
E0
  Radiation Length
dx X 0 (gcm-2)
E0/e
x/ X0
 E  E0e X0 x

3rd May 2013 Fergus Wilson, RAL 3

 Photon Absorption
e-  Electron-positron pair
photon
e production
 Exponential absorption
e+  Length scale 9/7×X0
atom

dE 7 E
 
dx 9 X 0

3rd May 2013 Fergus Wilson, RAL 4

Radiation Length for electrons and
photons
Radiation Length X has 2 definitions:
o

 “Mean distance over which high-

energy electron loses all but 1/e of
716.4 A
its energy by Bremsstrahlung.” X0  (gcm  2 )
 “7/9ths of the mean free path for Z ( Z  1) ln(287 / Z )
pair production by a high-energy
photon.”

X0 (g cm-2) X0 (cm)

Air 37 30,000

Silicon 22 9.4

Lead 6.4 0.56

3rd May 2013 Fergus Wilson, RAL 5

 Simple Electromagnetic (EM) Shower
Ec Critical Energy

X0 2X0 3X0 4X0

 Start with electron or photon
x 0
 Depth ~ ln(E0)
N 1 2 4 8 16 0  Most energy deposited as
ionisation.
<E> E0 E0/2 E0/4 E0/8 E0/16 <Ec

3rd May 2013 Fergus Wilson, RAL 6

 Real Electro-magnetic Shower
 Shape dominated by fluctuations

As depth of
shower increases
more energy is Tail
carried by
photons

Maximum close to naïve dE (bt ) a 1 e  bt x

 E0b , t
depth expectation dt (a ) X0

3rd May 2013 Fergus Wilson, RAL 7

Calorimetry 1 - Homogeneous
In homogeneous calorimeters the functions of passive particle absorption and
active signal generation and readout are combined in a single material. Such
materials are almost exclusively used for electromagnetic calorimeters, e.g.
crystals, composite materials (like lead glass, PbWO4) or liquid noble gases.

• Crystal, glass, liquid

• Acts as absorber and
scintillator
• Light detected by
photodetector
• E.g. PbWO4
(X0 ≈ 0.9 cm)
95%
lead
3rd May 2013 Fergus Wilson, RAL 8
Calorimetry 2 – Sampling
 In sampling calorimeters the
functions of particle absorption and
active signal readout are separated.
This allows optimal choice of
absorber materials and a certain
freedom in signal treatment.
 Heterogeneous calorimeters are
mostly built as sandwich counters,
sheets of heavy-material absorber
(e.g. lead, iron, uranium) alternating
with layers of active material (e.g.
liquid or solid scintillators, or
proportional counters).
 Only the fraction of the shower
energy absorbed in the active
material is measured.
 Hadron calorimeters, needing
considerable depth and width to
create and absorb the shower, are
necessarily of the sampling
calorimeter type (see next slide).

3rd May 2013 Fergus Wilson, RAL 9

Hadronic Showers
 Nuclear interaction length >> radiation
length

  35g.cm A -2 1/ 3

e.g. Lead: X0 = 0.56 cm, λ = 17 cm

 Hadron showers wider, deeper, less

well understood
 Need much larger calorimeter to
contain hadron shower
 Always sampling

 Dense metals still good as

absorbers
 Mechanical/economic

considerations often important

 Uranium, steel, brass… Hadronic Calorimeter from
NOMAD experiment

3rd May 2013 Fergus Wilson, RAL 10

Hadronic Calorimeter CDF

Alternating layers
of steel and readout

CMS Barrel CMS Endcap

Calorimeter Calorimeter

3rd May 2013 Fergus Wilson, RAL 11

Energy Resolution Limitations
 EM Calorimeter  Hadronic Calorimeter
 the intrinsic limitation in resolution results  A fluctuating π0 component among the
from variations in the net track length of secondaries which interacts
charged particles in the cascade. electromagnetically without any further
 Sampling Fluctuations nuclear interaction (π0→γγ). Showers may
develop with a dominant electromagnetic
 Landau Distribution component.
 A sizeable amount of the available energy
 ( E ) 1%  3% is converted into excitation and breakup of
 nuclei. Only a small fraction of this energy
will eventually appear as a detectable signal
E E 
and with large event-to-event fluctuations.
A considerable fraction of the energy of the
incident particle is spent on reactions which
do not result in an observable signal. Such
processes may be energy leakage of
various forms, like:
 Backscattering
 Nuclear excitation
 slow neutrons, neutrinos

 (E) 30%

E E
3rd May 2013 Fergus Wilson, RAL 12
Multiple Scattering
 Elastic scattering from nuclei causes angular deviations:

13.6 MeV
 RMS  q x / X0
θ  cp

 Approximately Gaussian
 Can disrupt measurements in subsequent detectors
 If you want to:
 Measure momentum : make detector as light as possible

 Measure energy: make detector as heavy as possible

 Measure momentum before energy!

3rd May 2013 Fergus Wilson, RAL 13
Creating a detector from the components

3rd May 2013 Fergus Wilson, RAL 14

1) Vertex Detectors
Purpose: Ultra-high precision trackers close to interaction point to
measure vertices of charged tracks

 Spatial resolution a few

microns
 Low mass
 A few layers of silicon

3rd May 2013 Fergus Wilson, RAL 15

 2) Tracking Detectors
Purpose: Measure trajectories of charged particles

 Low mass
 Reduce multiple scattering

 Reduce shower formation

 High precision
 Multiple 2D or 3D points
 Drift chamber, TPC, silicon...
 Can measure momentum in
magnetic field (p = 0.3qBR)

3rd May 2013 Fergus Wilson, RAL 16

 3) Particle ID
Purpose: Distinguish different charged “stable” particles
 Muon, pion, kaon, proton
 Measured momentum and energy: m2 = E2 – p2
 Difficult at high energy E ~ p

 Different dE/dx in tracking detectors

 Only for low energy β-2 region, no good for MIPs

 Measure time-of-flight, gives β

 Fast scintillator

 Measure β directly
 Cerenkov radiation

 Measure γ directly
 Transition radiation

3rd May 2013 Fergus Wilson, RAL 17

4) EM Calorimeter
Purpose: Identify and measure energy of electrons and photons

 Need ~ 10 X0 ATLAS: Liquid Argon + Lead

 10 cm of lead
 Will see some energy from muons
and hadrons
 Homogenous
 Crystal

 Doped glass

 Sampling
 Absorber + scintillator/MWPC/…

CMS: Lead-Tungstate crystal

3rd May 2013 Fergus Wilson, RAL 18
 5) Hadron Calorimeter LHCb
Purpose: Identify and measure energy of all hadrons
 Need ~ 10 λ

 2 m of lead

 Both charged and neutral

 Will see some energy from muons

 Sampling

 Heavy, structural metal absorber

 Scintillator, MWPC detector

CDF

3rd May 2013 Fergus Wilson, RAL 19

 6) Muon Detectors
Purpose: Identify muons
CMS
 Muons go where other particles cannot reach:
 No nuclear interactions

 Critical energies >> 100 GeV

 Always a MIP

 Stable (τ = 2.2 μs)

 A shielded detector can

identify muons
 “shielding” is often

calorimeters or the
magnet iron return yoke
 Scintillator, MWPC, drift

chambers…
3rd May 2013 Fergus Wilson, RAL 20
Putting them all together

3rd May 2013 Fergus Wilson, RAL 21

Next Time...

Putting it all together

- building a particle physics experiment

3rd May 2013 Fergus Wilson, RAL 22